My Morning Commute

[83b]

I hereby invoke an “I Hate People Day” whereby I will do all of the assorted stuff I’ve been putting off because it will require me to be at least mildly unpleasant. Let the naggings, pesterings, and justified upbraidings commence!

It was that kind of commute this morning.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@83(b) 125580 wrote:

I hereby invoke an “I Hate People Day”

My philosophy is that when every day, by default, is “I Hate People Day”, the only direction your day can go is up, because the negatives are the baseline and the positives are like nice little surprises. So really, hating everyone and everything is really the most positive and healthy outlook on life one can have.

[Crickey7]

I love people on my commute, but for some reason they won’t let me hug them.

[GovernorSilver]

First full ride with my new fall jacket (Pearl Izumi Elite barrier something), but otherwise still had my usual t-shirt and shorts. At 52-54F turns out my attire was just right, the wind chill was bearable yet I didn’t burn up either. Beautiful morning.

My coworker was one of my inspirations to learn how to ride a bike and start commuting by bike. He thought Metro fares were overpriced (this was a couple of years ago) and thus started bike commuting to cut Metro costs. But he’s like me in that cycling is only one of several physical activities we pursue. I do my thing on parallettes and rings, and he plays tennis with a local league. I bike on rest days between strength training days and he avoids biking when he’s got a tennis match. So my bike commute day is my “leg day”.

I still take Metro on weekends sometimes, as long as there’s no outage on the Yellow line. I’ve done the temporary shuttles between Pentagon City or Crystal City and Braddock/King and boy does that pile on trip time. If there’s a concert or some other event I want to go to in the U St, Columbia Heights/Mt. Pleasant, or Gallery Place areas I usually take Metro, because I hate looking for parking in those areas. If there’s a track outage on Yellow Line, I’d sooner drive and catch Metro on another line than drive to any of those areas, and/or do CaBi.

[rcannon100]

@TwoWheelsDC 125582 wrote:

My philosophy is that when every day, by default, is “I Hate People Day”, the only direction your day can go is up, because the negatives are the baseline and the positives are like nice little surprises. So really, hating everyone and everything is really the most positive and healthy outlook on life one can have.

I would like to join your religion and subscribe to your newsletter. Where can I send my son’s tuition as a donation to your church?

[consularrider]

@Crickey7 125586 wrote:

I love people on my commute, but for some reason they won’t let me hug them.

That’s ’cause you’re not Dirt.

[Terpfan]

I think it was Dave P who rolled by a few of us saying various nice good mornings and a quick comment. In my case, making fun of the joggers with heavy jackets. I got a good laugh. I could tell the other riders did as well.

Unrelated, did anyone notice that whole army of riders going southbound on MVT by the airport circa 8amish? It looked like two cops in the lead. There must have 50 people. And it was not really a pace line. More just a group.

[vern]

The relative warmth this morning amplified the sense that my backpack is probably terminal due to excessive stinky-ness.

[mikoglaces]

@AFHokie 125548 wrote:

When people ask why I commute by bike, I tell them it’s because I’m lazy…by riding to/from I’ve combined my commute & workout so I don’t have to find time to exercise before/after work.

I’ve had metro & driving commutes take an hour over the average time, but when cycling my variable is at most +/- 5 minutes. The hard part’s maintaining a consistent departure time.

Exactly. Before I was commuting by bike, I was getting up early to get a ride in before commuting by bus and metro. When I got off the metro at Foggy Bottom, I’d walk through Washington Circle and see the same cyclists I saw riding by me at my bus stop in Falls Church! That’s when I knew i was wasting time and so I started bike commuting. That was 21 years ago.

And yes, the time commuting is very consistent-unlike metro or driving. My bike commute probably takes longer than driving – say, 1 1/2 hours/day biking versus maybe 10-20 minutes less driving (assuming I leave late after rush hour like i usually do), on average, but for that 10-20 minute investment of time I get to ride for 1 1/2 hours. And i don’t have to drive (which I don’t particularly like, depending of course on what NPR has on) or walk to bus, bus to metro, fight for seat, walk to work (not my cup of tea).

[Crickey7]

@vern 125682 wrote:

The relative warmth this morning amplified the sense that my backpack is probably terminal due to excessive stinky-ness.

I am getting to the same point. I de-funk the backpack periodically with oxi soaks and washing, but there comes a point at which the funk becomes a living organism that never dies. Anyone been successful in permanent de-funking?

[Tim Kelley]

On lazy biking: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?3499-Lazy-Bikers

[mstone]

@Crickey7 125686 wrote:

I am getting to the same point. I de-funk the backpack periodically with oxi soaks and washing, but there comes a point at which the funk becomes a living organism that never dies. Anyone been successful in permanent de-funking?

Washing it in water hot enough to sterilize will work, but may damage the backpack.

[Emm]

@Crickey7 125686 wrote:

I am getting to the same point. I de-funk the backpack periodically with oxi soaks and washing, but there comes a point at which the funk becomes a living organism that never dies. Anyone been successful in permanent de-funking?

vinegar works wonders on de-funking stuff. Soak it in a vinegar water solution (usually 1 cup white vinegar, some cool water), and then if your backpack can survive it, put it in the wash on delicate with some laundry detergent so you don’t smell like a pickle. Then air dry it, in a nice sunny well ventilated spot of possible. My backpack can handle this 1-2 times a year, and it does wonders. I let it dry on a chair in the backyard on a really sunny day.

jezebel actually has a great series on cleaning stuff, and did a “defunking gym clothes” article which I use as a how-to for all my bike and workout gear.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Tim Kelley 125687 wrote:

On lazy biking: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?3499-Lazy-Bikers

This morning I was feeling really lazy and considered taking the easy way out…I thought better of it and rode fixed rather than geared. Geared is now my “lazy” option.

[Terpfan]

Today was an interesting ride in. I decided to try the airport around the gravel. The hardest part turned out to be the merge back onto the trail because it dumps you at the bottom of that last hill heading north. Otherwise, I should probably figure the right way into the cab arrivals pickup area rather than following normal vehicles pickup and going across the sidewalk. I rode right by the cop who did not seem to give a crap I was there–he was more interested in talking to his buddy on segway.

FWIW, they’re going to run the detour from that abandoned road crossing (first one heading north) up the hill. Then at the top of the hill, folks will have to cross the road (no traffic going way you came up, but cars are coming the other direction). They have painted a crosswalk there. Then it looks like you will have to walk/ride downhill on the mulch. Or, you can just do what I did above, which really wasn’t all that bad.

I thought that was the interesting part of my ride, but sadly I watched a young woman crash turning left from MVT to 14th St Bridge part. A couple of folks stopped right after me and it was nice to see so many others ride by asking if help was needed for her. In the end, she looked like she was just shook up, albeit she had some road rash on her face since it was a nasty fall. I was worried about her ankle which looked twisted under the bike. She said it was okay though. I think she hit that small lip between the two paths while she cut in the inside portion at a higher speed. I’m glad she was alright though.

And my Washington St riding continues. Still no real vehicle complaints at me yet, which is surprising. Beautiful morning to ride.

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